Smackdown
Date: March 7, 2014
Location: Joe Louis
Arena, Detroit, Michigan
Commentators: John
Bradshaw Layfield, Michael Cole
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
We're getting closer
and closer to Wrestlemania with the main story coming out of Monday
being the lack of CM Punk. While there's still a chance of a
surprise return, it's not looking likely that he's going to come back
anytime soon. Other than that we're still waiting to find out what
Daniel Bryan is going to be doing at the biggest show of the year.
Let's get to it.
Opening sequence.
We open with a recap of
Bryan challenging HHH for a match at Wrestlemania and being beaten
down by Kane, Batista, HHH and Orton to end the show.
Here's Batista to get
things going. He asked where have all the real men gone in WWE and
he got Dolph Ziggler on last week. Batista destroyed Ziggler and
then he got Daniel Bryan on Raw with the same outcome. Bryan isn't a
superhero but here he is (with a YES hoodie) to disagree. He doesn't
think Batista is a hero but Batista wants to know who is. This place
has gotten screwed up because it's listening to the fans.
Daniel Bryan is nothing
but a big fan and he should buy a ticket to Wrestlemania and watch
Batista win the title. Bryan thinks the skinny jeans are cutting off
the blood flow to Batista's brain. It took four people to beat him
on Monday and before they all came out, he had Batista beat. Yeah
Bryan is a fan, just like everyone here. Batista says he's better
than Bryan and this is now his universe.
Bryan is allowed to
live in this universe but Batista is fine with taking that existence
away. Daniel makes fun of Batista tattoos and clothes and the brawl
is on with Batista being sent to the floor. This brings out Kane but
the distraction lets Batista get in a shot from behind. Big Show
makes the save and clears off the monsters. Vickie comes out and
makes a tag match for later.
Christian vs. Dolph
Ziggler
Alberto is on
commentary. Ziggler takes Christian down to start and swivels his
hips a bit. Christian slaps him in the face and the brawl heads to
the mat with Ziggler dropping a string of elbows. They head outside
with Ziggler being sent into the steps as we take a break. Back with
Christian holding a chinlock while laying on Ziggler's back. Dolph
fights up but is quickly slammed back onto the mat. Del Rio is
pleased with Christian's new attitude as the Canadian puts on a
chinlock.
Christian goes for the
sunset flip out of the corner but gets dropkicked out of the air in a
nice counter. Dolph hammers away and gets a delayed two off a
neckbreaker. The Killswitch is countered with Ziggler jumping over
Christian's back followed by the jumping DDT for two. Dolph can't
hit the Zig Zag but he does get a middle rope X-Factor. Del Rio gets
on the announce table and shouts at Ziggler, allowing Christian to
hit the Killswitch for the pin at 9:05.
Rating: C.
Gah enough with the guy standing on the table and shouting for a DQ.
I guess that's the evolution of someone coming down to ringside
because heaven forbid we have ANYTHING other than a distraction for a
win. Ziggler looked good out there, which is why he jobbed of
course.
Post
match Christian is about to talk about attacking Sheamus but here's
the Irishman himself to beat down Christian. A Brogue Kick misses
and Christian runs up the ramp.
We
look at the Usos winning the titles on Raw.
Usos
vs. Ryback/Curtis Axel
Non-title.
Jey starts with Axel and is
immediately dragged to the corner for a tag to Ryback. The
Usos score with a series of chops but Axel low bridges Jimmy out to
the floor. Axel hammers away on the chest and drops an elbow for
good measure. Ryback cranks on the arm a bit as the announcers talk
about malaria. Jimmy comes back with chops to Ryback and a Bubba
Bomb followed by a Samoan drop. Everything breaks down and the
double superkick followed by the Superfly Splash take care of Ryback
at 4:20.
Rating: C-.
This was fine and a good way for the new champions to get to show
off. There's always a chemistry with real brothers that you just
don't get with other teams. They should have won the titles years
ago but it was worth the wait as they look good as champions out
there.
We
look back at Heyman's promo and Brock destroying Henry on Raw. Only
the portion about Undertaker vs. Lesnar was shown and Punk wasn't
mentioned.
Kane
thinks Bryan's luck runs out tonight. Bryan has delusions of
grandeur such as challenging HHH to a match at Wrestlemania, so
tonight he'll shove Bryan's beard down his throat.
Tamina
Snuka/AJ Lee vs. Natalya/Eva Marie
Eva
armdrags Tamina down to start but AJ gets in a shot from the apron,
allowing Tamina to take over. The
heels take over on Eva in the corner with AJ kicking her in the ribs.
We hit the chinlock from the champion but Eva crawls away and makes
the tag off to Natalya. Nattie cleans house and slams AJ down before
hitting a discus lariat on Tamina. The Sharpshooter gets the
submission from AJ at 3:57.
Rating: D.
Of the 758 times we've done this same match and story now, this is
the most recent.
Tamina
stares the winners down post match but nothing comes of it.
Paul
Bear Hall of Fame video.
Here
are Reigns and Ambrose for a Shield Summit. Dean says he can take
whatever physical pain that comes with being on this team but what he
can't take is being lied to. He was lied to for the last 18 months
because he believed that all three of them were in this together.
Then Seth Rollins walked out this past Monday night, so he needs to
get out here right now and settle things.
Rollins
comes down the ramp and Reigns says this better be good. Seth says
Monday wasn't the best time to do what he did during a war with the
Wyatts. The war is within themselves and not with the Wyatt Family.
However, he sacrificed himself on Monday to get through the Wyatts as
he always does. Ambrose doesn't want to hear that and says he does
that every night but doesn't walk out. Reigns isn't pleased either
and Seth says that's the point: for the first time in months the two
of them are seeing things the same way.
Rollins
says the three of them can walk out right now and go their separate
ways but there's strength together. They've taken apart everyone
they've seen over the last year and a half so let's keep this
together and take this place apart. Dean shoves Rollins down but
Seth shoves him right back.
Seth
says he knows what's going to make him feel better so he slaps Dean
to the mat. He offers to let Dean give him one right back and
Ambrose does it before Rollins is done talking. Reigns is just
watching. Rollins asks if we're done here or if we're done. He puts
out his fist and Reigns does the same. Ambrose thinks about it and
puts his fist out as well to a nice pop from the audience. Cool
segment but this is far from over.
Sheamus vs. Alberto
Del Rio
Sheamus has a bad arm
coming in. Del Rio goes after the injury but is easily clotheslined
to the floor with the good arm. The rolling fireman's carry on the
floor has Alberto in even more trouble and Sheamus rams him into the
barricade. They head back inside for a few seconds before
rolling outside again. Del Rio sends the arm into the steps to
take over and we take a break. Back
with Del Rio hitting the running enziguri in the corner for two. An
armbar goes nowhere and Del Rio misses a charge to the ropes and gets
clotheslined.
Sheamus goes up but
Alberto goes after the arm, only to get caught by the ten forearms to
the chest. Alberto snaps the arm over the ropes and hits the low
superkick for a very close two count. Sheamus breaks up the
armbreaker and hits a running knee lift followed by the Irish Curse
for two. A second attempt at the armbreaker goes on but Sheamus
rolls over and powerbombs his way out of the hold. Alberto grabs the
arm again but Sheamus gets his foot in the ropes. Back up and the
Brogue Kick gets the pin at 7:36 shown of 11:06.
Rating: C.
Not a bad match for the most part but as always I didn't see feel any
drama over the armbreaker at all because Sheamus is one of those guys
that never taps out. The more I see these guys the more I'm thinking
they put Sheamus and Ziggler together against Christian and Del Rio
at Wrestlemania.
The
Wyatts want to know why John Cena
keeps doing this stuff.
Cena feels the need to feel some void in his life. What would John
be without his legacy? Bray's father was the war, his brother was
the snare that forced him to watch, his mother was the hard road and
the world is his teacher. Once he takes care of John Cena, he just
wants to stand back and warm his hands as it burns. Follow the
buzzards.
The
expert panel of Booker T., Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Alex Riley recap
the show thus far.
Batista
says tonight Bryan has to face the reality that there's nothing
special about him.
Lana
brings out Rusev for his usual Bulgarian promo.
Daniel
Bryan says HHH isn't a real man because he keeps hiding behind
anything he can to avoid a match at Wrestlemania. Big Show comes in
and asks if he should get some skinny jeans to get people to be
scared of him. They're naming themselves Respect the Beard, Fear the
Giant.
Kane/Batista
vs. Daniel
Bryan/Big Show
Kane
takes Bryan into the corner and drops him with an elbow to the jaw.
Bryan takes him into the corner as well for a tag to Big Show for
heavy right hands and chops. Kane avoids a charge into the corner
and tags in Batista but Big Show counters a suplex into a double DDT
called a double suplex. The villains roll outside and the FLYING
GOAT puts both guys down as we take a break. Back
with Big Show chopping Batista against the ropes before it's back to
Bryan for kicks to the chest.
Kane
gets knocked off the apron and Bryan nails Batista with the YES
Kicks. Big Dave ducks the last kick and spinebusters Bryan down for
two. Back to Kane who loads up a superplex but Bryan knocks him off
and hits the missile dropkick. Batista gets another tag and
drives Bryan hard into the corner.
Back
in and Batista runs him over with a tackle but
Bryan escapes the Batista Bomb and kicks Batista's head off. The hot
tag brings in Big Show who cleans house on the also legal Kane.
Bryan gets two off a swan dive and everything breaks down. Kane
tries the chokeslam but Bryan counters into a sunset flip with Big
Show knocking Kane out to give Daniel the pin at 10:42.
Rating: C.
This was your standard main event tag team match which doesn't really
change anything. Hopefully Big Show doesn't come back into the main
event scene because I think we're all still recovering from his
acting last fall. Bryan getting another pin will help but he needs
the pin on Batista to change the title scene.
Overall Rating: C-.
We're firmly back into Smackdown being meaningless this week. Some
matches happened, some angles were reenforced, nothing new really
happens. I mean, it's not the worst way to spend two hours but
there's nothing you need to watch at all. That's a shame too as
Smackdown had been fun lately but this was just there for the most
part.
One
more note: there was a Big E. vs. Jack Swagger match taped but there
was no mention of it here. Big E. won and the Real Americans had
more issues after the match.
Results
Christian b. Dolph
Ziggler – Killswitch
Usos b. Ryback/Curtis
Axel – Superfly Splash to Ryback
Natalya/Eva Marie b.
Tamina Snuka/AJ Lee – Sharpshooter to Lee
Sheamus b. Alberto Del
Rio – Brogue Kick
Big Show/Daniel Bryan
b. Kane/Batista – Rollup to Kane
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